Saeb Erekat
Saeb ErekatReuters

King Abdullah II of Jordan has instructed the Jordanian Foreign Minister to assist senior Palestinian Authority negotiator Saeb Erekat in case he needs treatment in the kingdom after being diagnosed with coronavirus on Thursday, Channel 12 News reported on Friday.

Erekat is considered to be a high-risk individual after he underwent a lung transplant at a hospital in Virginia in 2017.

He said in a tweet on Friday he was suffering "difficult" symptoms after contracting the virus, but that things were "under control".

In 2016, Erekat was diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis, a respiratory disease caused by the formation of scar tissue inside the lungs. Erekat received medical treatment in Israel, and it was later reported that he was waiting for a lung transplant in Israel.

However, the Ministry of Health and the National Transplant Center said Erekat was not on the waiting list for a lung transplant in Israel.

On Wednesday, the Palestinian Authority “health ministry” reported six more deaths from coronavirus in 24 hours, bringing the death toll from the virus to 418.

In addition, it reported another 510 new cases of the virus, of which 281 were in Judea and Samaria, 102 in the Jerusalem district and 127 in the Gaza Strip.

(Arutz Sheva’s North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Simchat Torah and Shmini Atzeret in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)